1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an X-ray machine for imaging a female breast (mammography).
2. Description of Related Art
Various X-ray machines are known for performing an examination of a female breast. In these X-ray machines, a rotating gantry having an X-ray tube and an X-ray detector is located below a patient table on which a female patient rests. A machine of this kind is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,836. Disadvantages of the X-ray machine described in the '836 patent include a large space requirement and the lack of accessibility to the breast being examined. Furthermore, the patient is put into a relatively uncomfortable posture with her head in a low position to maximize the amount of breast accessible to the X-ray device.
An improvement to the aforementioned device is provided in U.S. Publication No. 2006/0094950. The patient is afforded a more comfortable position in the X-ray machine disclosed in the '950 publication. However, the breast to be examined is accessible only with special instruments. In addition, the X-ray machine disclosed in the '950 publication requires a large amount of space, due to the large constructional size of the gantry.
U.S. Publication No. 2007/0064867 discloses an X-ray machine that is based on a spiral computer tomography (CT) scanner. Although the X-ray machine described in the '867 publication requires less space, resolution is limited in this machine by a mechanical design which provides low stability. Another disadvantage of this machine is that the breast is not accessible from the outside of the machine.